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CLASS NOTES
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
CLASS NOTES
novel, Offerings, was published
October 15 by Academy Chicago
Publishers. Here is what one reader
posted on Amazon: ‘The fantastic
knotty debut novel from Richard
Smolev unfurls in the world of Wall
Street machinations, and serves as a
modern day reminder of the extent
that the dealings of Wall Street
affect the day-to-day existences
of individuals. With Offerings,
Smolev crafts a cracking narrative
of financial intrigue that forces you
to confront the role of Wall Street in
your own existence while following
an intricate narrative to its logical
endpoint. This one is impossible to
put down and will leave afterimages
in your head months removed
after finishing the novel. I have
not read a thriller as top-notch and
high-stakes this year.’”
Joseph Stillman reports, “After
a career working on policy and
programs concerning urban poverty
in the nonprofit and foundation
worlds, several years ago I decided
to jump into the trenches, and have
been teaching social studies in a
high school in the South Bronx. It
is by far the hardest, and often the
most rewarding, job I have ever
had, keeping me young and on my
toes. (When asked, I tell my kids I
am 149 years old. Sometimes they
believe me.)”
William C. Longa notes, “Buoyed
by the come-from-behind win
at Cornell and the earlier win
against Yale … and somehow not
discouraged by the 69–0 drubbing
by Harvard … Jack Probolus, John
Hughes ’71 and I forged ahead with
an on-and-off tradition of attending
the Columbia/Brown contest at
Brown. Sadly the tailgate and two
early field goals by the Lions were
the highlights, and the finish was
yet another defeat. The weather was
great and we had a delightful minireunion
of former crew guys, which
will likely repeat itself next season.
Others were invited but must have
had a premonition of the outcome.”
Jack Probolus followed up on
the note from William: “It was interesting
in that the cost of parking
exceeded the price of admission
to the contest on the gridiron. Yes,
our optimism still blooms despite
the travails and fluctuations of
the team. We are yet again in the
building mode. Some positive and
encouraging signs and perhaps
a dynasty is in the making! Let’s
hope.”
Frank Motley sent a brief note:
“Nothing much to report: entering
my 35th year as dean of admission
at Indiana University’s Maurer
School of Law, enjoyed the holidays
with most of my 19 grandchildren
(!) and enjoying Hoosier basketball
after several very difficult seasons
without ‘the general,’ Bobby
Knight.”
Rob Leonard directs our attention
to several recent articles in
which he was featured, including
one in The New Yorker from July 23,
2012, “Words on Trial.” You can
find it on its website. Rob continues,
“For some comic relief, TIME
recently deemed me the second
smartest rock star in history, behind
Brian May of Queen, who is an
astrophysicist. I believe I shall sue!
Heck, I went to Columbia! See
entertainment.time.com/2012/09/
07/school-of-rock-10-super-smartmusicians/#class-acts.
“If the New Yorker article whets
your interest, here is more: A clip
from a recent Nightline I appeared
on: abcnews.go.com/Nightline/
video/missing-ariz-girl-911-tapesreleased-16354671.
And two short
clips in which I explain forensic
linguistics: investigation.discovery.
com/videos/solved-forensiclinguistic.html
and hofstra.edu/
Academics/Colleges/Hclas/FLP/
MAFLP/index.html.”
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Jim Shaw
139 North 22nd St.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
jes200@columbia.edu
If you are not receiving the ’71C
eNews and would like to, please
email me.
Dennis Langer, a clinical professor
in the department of psychiatry
at Georgetown’s School of Medicine,
is a director of Innocoll, a biopharmaceutical
company. According to
his Innocoll biography, “Dr. Langer
is a director of Myriad Genetics,
Myrexis and several private health
care companies. He has served as
a director of several public and
private biotechnology, specialty
pharmaceutical and diagnostic
companies, including Sirna Therapeutics
(acquired by Merck & Co.),
Ception Therapeutics (acquired by
Cephalon), Transkaryotic Therapies
(acquired by Shire plc), Pharmacopeia
(acquired by Ligand) and Cytogen
Corporation (acquired by EUSA
Pharma). … He received an M.D.
from Georgetown University School
of Medicine, a J.D. (cum laude) from
Harvard Law School and a B.A. in
biology from Columbia.”
Eric Rose ’75 P&S, e.v.p. of life
sciences at MacAndrews & Forbes
Holdings, has been appointed
chairman of CircuLite. According
to his CircuLite biography, “Dr.
Rose is a recognized leader in
academic medicine and surgery
and an entrepreneur. His interests
range from device development to
drug discovery, biodefense, clinical
evaluative research and health
policy. He is e.v.p. of life sciences
at MacAndrews & Forbes and has
been a director of CircuLite since
November 2011.
“In addition to his work with
MacAndrews & Forbes, Dr. Rose
has been chairman of the Department
of Health Evidence and Policy
at the Icahn School of Medicine
since 2008. He also has served as a
director of SIGA Technologies since
2001, becoming chairman and CEO
in 2007.
“From 1994–2007, he was chairman
of the Department of Surgery
and surgeon-in-chief of NewYork-
Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia
University Medical Center. Dr. Rose
is a past president of the International
Society for Heart and Lung
Transplantation and was also the
Morris & Rose Milstein Professor of
Surgery with P&S’ Department of
Surgery. …
“Dr. Rose has an M.D. from P&S
and a B.A. from Columbia.”
Richard Belous writes, “I have
read the column through the years
but until now I have never sent in
anything (except money).
“To make a long story short, I
earned a Ph.D. in economics. I am
v.p. of research and chief economist
for United Way Worldwide (the national
and international headquarters
for the United Way network).
I also am an adjunct professor in
economics at The George Washington
University.
“My wife, Debbie, and I have five
children who range in age from 28 to
9. The 9-year-old has expressed interest
in Columbia. We live outside of
Washington, D.C. In a household of
vegetarians, I remain the only meat
eater (if you don’t count the cats).
“I don’t believe that most people
want to retire. What they want is a
long vacation.”
Dr. Eric Rose ’71, ’75 P&S has been appointed
chairman of CircuLite.
Julio Rivera Jr. reports, “I long
ago decided that once I had accumulated
a certain amount in
financial assets, I would stop working
and begin a life of leisure. So,
effective January 3, I ceased being
a productive member of the American
labor force and started living
on the proceeds from my portfolio.
Now I can stay out at night as long
as I want without having to wake
up at 6 a.m. in order to be at my
office by 8:30. I can stay in bed
all day if I want (which is highly
unlikely, as I hate being indoors
when there is so much to see and
do here in NYC) and do whatever I
feel like, whenever I want.
“So how do I plan to spend the
free time looming ahead of me for
years to come Well, I made several
decisions already.
“Travel (domestic): There are several
cities and areas of the country
I have always wanted to see but
never had the time: Charleston,
S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; the Grand
Canyon; New Orleans; Chicago;
the California vineyards; Big
Sur; and others. I might become
adventurous and rent a car to drive
cross-country, stopping off at these
places on my way to the West
Coast, then traveling to Vancouver,
Canada, to visit friends and returning
to the East Coast by driving
through the rest of Canada. For
those who have innocently listed
your address with the Alumni Office,
don’t grab your shotgun and
hustle your spouse, kids and pets
to a locked room in the house if in
the middle of the night you hear
banging on your front door: Just
peer through your window and if
you see a guy standing on the front
steps with a toothbrush in one
hand and a rolled-up sleeping bag
in the other, it’s me, ready to accept
your kind offer of hospitality!
“Travel (foreign): I am seriously
considering renting an apartment
for one summer in Madrid and
using that as a base to explore the
rest of Spain and maybe the west
coast of France. It would certainly
force me to improve my mastery
of Spanish. Later on, I hope to visit
India, Japan, Eastern Europe, the
Nordic countries and Brazil/Argentina/Chile.
“Classes: As to be expected of an
Ivy League student, I plan to enroll
in a few language classes, starting
with Italian (always wanted to
read Dante in the original, though I
have been warned it is the equivalent
of reading Chaucer in Ye Olde
English), to be followed by French,
German, Latin and ancient Greek.
Another goal is improving my
baking skills and becoming adept
in the cuisines of France, Vietnam
and India.
“Reading: I am now at the point
where I can no longer fit additional
books in my condo. I have estimated
that if I were to read two books
a week, I could dispose of my
entire holdings by the time I am
100. And all those read books will
be contributed to my local public
library as I finish them so that others
can enjoy them as well.”
Alex Sachare writes, “My wife,
Lori, and I spent 18 days in Israel
last fall, touring the country and
visiting with our daughter, Deborah
’14 Barnard, who spent the
semester at Tel Aviv University.
“We had a fabulous time seeing
the sights from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,
the Galilee to Eilat. We went
to the Western Wall three times,
including once as a family and
once for the start of the Sabbath on
Friday night, which was amazing.
We floated in the Dead Sea, took
the cable-car to Masada (my climbing
days are history), went to Shabbat
services at the Jerusalem Great
Synagogue, stayed on a kibbutz,
saw more ruins and archaeological
sites than I can remember and
visited a secret, underground
bullet factory from the 1948 war
for independence. My wife and I
even had ceremonial bar and bat
mitzvahs in Jerusalem!
“Exhausted, we got home two
days before the start of the rocket
launching from the Gaza Strip.
Our daughter, however, got the full
experience of life as an Israeli, with
visits to bomb shelters in Tel Aviv
and Jerusalem. She stuck it out,
however, and is now back at Barnard,
where she majors in environmental
policy. If anyone wants to
know of a tour company that does
a great job on guided tours to Israel
with a Jewish orientation, please be
in touch (as801@columbia.edu).”
Bob Brintz has written “A Path
to Survival Part II,” a sequel to a
post on patientslikeme.com for
those “PLMers” who have ALS
(amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,
more commonly Lou Gehrig’s
disease) and their friends. (The
original “A Path to Survival” was
included in the ’71C eNews of
March 2012 and excerpted in our
Spring 2012 Class Notes.)
In Part II, Bob, who is paralyzed
and on a ventilator for life support,
sets out specific techniques for
dealing with ALS (and, in broader
scope, life). Some excerpts follow;
italics and capitalization are Bob’s.
“Your unconscious mind is
conditioned to interpret these
losses of self-image and of so many
pleasures, or even the threat of
these losses, as highly aversive.
As you consciously dwell on these
losses, you reinforce this negative
conditioning, which signals for you
to react with aversion, and your
mood deteriorates. …
“There are two qualities of the
mind that come into play if we are
to break this downward spiral.
First, the main determinants of how
we feel emotionally emanate from
our subconscious mind. Second, the
subconscious is very malleable. We can
retrain (reprogram) our subconscious
if we put our (conscious) mind to the
task.
“But first, let me tell you where I
came from. When I was first diagnosed
I was a bundle of negative,
harmful emotions — anger, fear,
worry, despair. I dreaded becoming
paralyzed. I expected to be dead in
two or three years. I wasn’t ready
to die. ... I felt like I was failing my
wife and children. My life was
over. I wanted a take-back, a redo,
to wake up in the morning and be
okay.
“Rather than just allowing the
pain to set my agenda, I did some
critical thinking about my situation.
I set some goals that I could
live into. I had promised my children
I would do everything in my
power to survive. What would that
look like I would be paralyzed. I
started asking myself many questions.
What kind of role model do
I want to be for my children How
can I use my remaining time to
teach my children about life and
death What messages do I want
to leave them with What kind of
father and husband could I be with
advanced ALS How do I want to
be remembered Who am I Who
will I be when I am paralyzed
Who do I choose to be
“I began to form a vision of how
I wanted to be and how I didn’t
want to be, as the disease progressed.
I knew that terminal illness
sometimes turns formerly kind
and loving individuals into angry,
bitter tyrants. I would not inflict my
suffering on my loved ones. Rather
than suffering, I chose happiness.
“I started to close my eyes and
create a mental vision of myself in
a wheelchair, paralyzed, smiling,
my family around me also smiling,
feeling love for my family and feeling
their love for me, everyone just
being themselves. This visualization
would manifest a few years later
as part of my reality. [Here, on the
website, Bob inserts a photograph
of such.]
“How did this transformation
from dread of paralysis to ‘paralyzed
and happy,’ and from fear of
death to acceptance, happen”
Bob then starts discussing particular
techniques. This excerpt is
from his section on visualization:
“I frequently did visualizations of
rigorous exercises I used to do. Pick
something you were really into and
can’t do anymore. Place your visualizations
in the present tense!
“Roadbike up a steep hill: the
key is to make the mental image as
vivid and detailed as you can. Relive
the experience. Get all of your
senses involved. Recall and feel the
feelings. See and feel the strength
in your muscles as you power to
the top and crest the hill. Then treat
yourself to the downhill side — 60
mph on a bicycle, BOOYAH! What
a rush!
“What does this do for me
Road biking is no longer a loss. It’s
no longer a cause for bad feelings.
Rather, it is a cherished memory, a
memory I enjoy recalling. The visualization
is also a mood elevator.
This particular visualization also
reinforces my sense of strength (of
will), power (to make a difference),
endurance (to go the distance),
determination (to keep going and
growing) and ass-kicking fun (my
joie de vivre).
“Other visualizations I have done
include: do a ridiculous number of
pull-ups; run five miles (runners’
euphoria — YEE HAH!); backpack
in the Grand Canyon (and looking
at and showing my photos); bound
across high peaks (a fantasy visualization).
“Another technique is to recall
your best accomplishments, successes
and triumphs. Recall the
qualities that enabled your success.
Recall how you felt. Remind yourself
that the person who achieved
that was and still is you.”
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Paul S. Appelbaum
39 Claremont Ave., #24
New York, NY 10027
pappel1@aol.com
Jeffrey Laurence received the Red
Ribbon Foundation Visionary Award
for his work in the fight against
AIDS. In addition to his day job as
a professor at Weill Cornell Medical
College, Jeffrey is senior scientific
consultant at the American Foundation
for AIDS Research. The award
ceremony and dinner took place
at the recently renovated Capitol
Theatre in Port Chester, N.Y., and
was a benefit for Lifebeat, Music
Fights HIV/AIDS.
Jeff Matloff, writing in for the
first time in 40 years, shares some
memories of back when. “When
I first interviewed at Columbia
in 1967, I was told by an assistant
dean that it was much like the
Marine Corps: It would make
a man of me. I knew that it was
an all-male, Ivy-League institution
— intellectually rigorous and
challenging. I will always appreciate
the quality of the education I
received as well as the intellect of
my peers who provided me both
a foundation for my strengths and
an awareness of my limitations.”
As for life since graduation,
Jeff says, “As an intellectual and
social late bloomer, I also credit my
Columbia experience for teaching
me basic social skills (mostly from
my peers) on how to get along
with, and thrive later, in the agora
of life. Learning social skills from
adolescent males, however, may
have had its pitfalls, as I remained
a committed bachelor with utterly
too brief moments of sybaritism for
many years. That condition finally
changed a few years ago when I
married Nancy, also a ‘first-timer.’ I
cannot directly credit this achievement
to my college experience. I
do thank Columbia, however, for
having also taught me the powers
of discipline and sublimation to
have waited this long to find the
love of my life.
“I know that most of my classmates
who contribute to CCT
regularly talk about their professional
achievements, children and
grandchildren. My progeny may be
summarized briefly. I’m the proud
owner of a 14½-year-old Labrador
retriever who is a dropout of the
Canine Companions of America
program. She’s been a delight and
no disappointment in terms of
needing drug rehab, penal incarcerations
or long-term residential
care for dementia. I will miss her
dearly when she’s gone.
“In terms of my professional
career, I started working as a
psychology aide at the Washington
DC VA Medical Center, during
my summers in college. Right
after college I earned a Ph.D. in
clinical psychology and have since
devoted my professional career
to working with combat-related
post-traumatic stress disorder, for
the past 30-plus years at the VA
Medical Center in San Diego.
“While I officially retired from
the Department of Veterans Affairs
in 2007, I work as a contractor providing
my experience, skills and
support to the previous and current
generation of veterans as both a
consultant and clinician. I also
maintain a teaching appointment
on the faculty of UC San Diego in
the Department of Psychiatry. In
my spare time, I enjoy the ambiance
of living in coastal southern
California and occasional forays
into the arts/culture. My biggest
regret of late is that I’ve not traveled
much in recent years. However, this
condition is somewhat mitigated
by the knowledge that, despite my
relatively sedentary lifestyle, I can
drive my Porsche in nearly perfect
year-round weather.”
Whether battling AIDS or
helping veterans, let us know how
you’ve made the world a better
place, too.
REUNION WEEKEND
MAY 30–JUNE 2, 2013
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Robin V. Del Giorno
robinv@columbia.edu
212-851-7399
DEVELOPMENT Heather Hunte
hh15@columbia.edu
212-851-7957
73
Barry Etra
1256 Edmund Park Dr. NE
Atlanta, GA 30306
betra1@bellsouth.net
Our 40th approacheth apace. Let
us not go gentle — make plans to
attend Alumni Reunion Weekend
and thus reaffirm our (relative)
youth. For those who have yet to
mark the calendar, the dates are
Thursday, May 30–Sunday, June
2. And for those who want more
SPRING 2013
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SPRING 2013
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